Best Culture Podcast

Nerdette

Thanks to ever-increasing access to technology, the world of podcasting is quickly becoming oversaturated with any and everyone holding opinions and a handy recording device. The ladies of the Nerdette podcast, Tricia Bobeda and Greta Johnsen, stand out amid all the chatter because of their refined radio technique (the two met in the trenches of WBEZ, where Bobeda is a producer) and their uncanny ability to bring out the nerd in everyone: on one episode they discuss science-fiction novels with former NFL punter Chris Kluwe, on another they trade lines from Arrested Development with Denise Kiernan, author of The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II. Nerdette's first season, which ended in May with a live podcast taped at Haymarket brewpub, built an interactive community by urging fans to "do their homework"; each episode ends with a cultural assignment (e.g., watch True Detective, read Karen Russell's Vampires in the Lemon Grove), and listeners are encouraged to call the Nerdette hotline (312-600-5638) with nerdy obsessions and homework assignments of their own.